Updates and Newsletters: The main news stories from the major sources, selected, compiled, and occasionally commented on by Michael Novakhov ("Mike Nova") | Public RSS Feeds on the various topics of Global Security | Topics oriented news reviews

Cage-free shark photographer Michael Muller is taking over Discovery Channel's Instagram for Shark Week 2014. He hopes to use the opportunity to raise awareness about the declining populations of sharks.

"BLUESTEEL"

"It's all about light. Whether In the studio or 40ft below the surface, it all boils down to light. Can't tell you how fulfilling it is to light these babies up. Now just need to put the spotlight on shark finning and ending it or at least regulating it."

"While I love shooting all these actors, this is what occupies my mind in between shots. Shooting in 103 degree heat helps make this moment come to mind as well," Muller says on his Instagram feed.

"I've been surrounded by 150 to 200 sharks, not once ever been been close to being bitten."

Muller says of sharks: "100 million a year are killed people ... We gotta do what we can to put a stop to this or our ocean's fragile eco system is going to end up with just jellyfish."

The government of Argentina is ready to use an anti-terrorism law to seek criminal charges against a US-based international printing company, which unexpectedly closed its plant on the outskirts of Buenos Aires.

Workers of RR Donnelley in the Argentinian capital came to work on Monday to be informed of the plant’s closure due to an “insurmountable crisis,” according to AP.

The company’s sudden filing for bankruptcy and shutting down its printing presses has left around 400 people jobless.

“We are facing a real case of fraudulent behavior and an attempt to intimidate the population,” Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner said in a Thursday speech cited by Reuters.

She believes there has been no sufficient ground for the company to shut down in a move which undermined the country’s economy. It could then be a violation of the anti-terrorism law, the president assumed. Argentina enacted its anti-terrorism law in 2011, but has not yet applied it.

Kirchner accused the printing company of being linked to foreign hedge funds or “vulture funds”, as they are called in Argentina, whose decade-long legal battle against the country in the US courts resulted in Argentina’s July default.

Two British newspapers are reporting that a column of Russian military vehicles has crossed into Ukraine separately from a convoy of some 250 Russian trucks that Moscow says is carrying humanitarian aid.

Robin Williams was sober and suffering from early stages of Parkinson's disease as well as anxiety and depression at the time of his apparent suicide, the actor's widow said in a statement on Thursday. Susan Schneider said Williams “was not yet ready to share publicly” his struggles with Parkinson's, an incurable and debilitating nervous system disorder that causes tremors and slowness of movement. “It is our hope in the wake of Robin's tragic passing, that others will...

Few media events in Russia attract television cameras like a speech by Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose public appearances are regularly beamed out by state-controlled television as the lead news across the country's 11 time zones.

But, after state-run media promised an important August 14 speech by Putin in Crimea, the Kremlin made a move that left both Russian and foreign media scratching their chins: It canceled the live feed of the event.

In the hours after Putin's address to Russian lawmakers, the only video footage of the speech that appeared to be available was broadcast by state-controlled television. This footage, however, featured no audio from the event. Instead, the anchors quoted from text reports issued in real time by Russian news agencies like Interfax and ITAR-TASS.

The independent-minded Ekho Moskvy radio noted that the agencies did not attach the "urgent" descriptions that they typically use to relay Putin's public statements.

It's unclear why the Kremlin and state-run media opted to downplay coverage of the speech, in which Putin touched both on domestic and foreign policy, including the standoff with the West over sanctions and the Ukraine crisis.

A Kremlin spokesman said to check the Kremlin's website later in the day for video footage. Asked why live video of the event had been canceled, he referred the question to Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov.

Attempts to reach Peskov on his mobile phone were unsuccessful.

Putin, flanked by top lawmakers from the State Duma, said Crimea is "capable of playing a unique unifying role for Russia, the role of a historical and spiritual source and another line of reconciliation of the Reds and the Whites," according to ITAR-TASS.

The absence of television coverage appeared all the more unusual given the fact that the Ukraine crisis has been a political winner for Putin at home, where his approval ratings have soared amid a patriotic surge following the Crimea annexation.

The Kremlin's own press service was comparably taciturn. Hours after the speech, it had issued a press release -- in both Russian and English -- with just one quote from the Russian leader.

"We will do all we can to end the conflict as soon as possible, to stop the bloodshed in Ukraine," Putin said, according to the Kremlin's press release.

Hype, Then Silence

The Kremlin and Russian state-run media had hyped Putin's speech in days prior to the event.

An August 14 curtain-raiser by ITAR-TASS featured the headline, "Putin To Deliver Speech Ahead Of New Political Season In Russia," while Peskov was quoted by the RIA Novosti news agency on August 11 as saying that the Russian leader will deliver a speech "rich in content."

Both Russian and foreign media outlets had announced they would broadcast the address live. But around 30 minutes before the start of the event near the Crimean city of Yalta, journalists were informed that no live video coverage would be allowed, the independent Russian television network Dozhd TV said on its Twitter feed.

The network added that its live coverage of Putin's remarks would be confined to written Tweets.

Typically following a Putin speech, the websites of state-controlled television channels feature wall-to-wall coverage of the event. In the hours following the August 14 address, however, the coverage on these websites was minimal.

Both NTV and Channel 1 television featured short segments with video but no sound bites, while the Rossiya-24 news channel had a story with only text.

The Kremlin-controlled RT television network featured stories about Putin's comments on both its English- and Russian-language sites. Neither offered video, however, nor did the network post footage on is popular YouTube channel.

WATCH: NTV's report on Putin's Crimea speech

WATCH: Channel 1's report on the same topic

The address was Putin's first major speech on the peninsula since May, when he spoke in glowing, historical tones about the Crimea annexation during a visit to the city of Sevastopol.

"I am sure that 2014 will also become part of the city's chronicle and of that of our entire country, as the year in which the peoples here expressed their firm desire to be together with Russia," Putin said before cheering, enthusiastic crowds on May 9.

The speech fell on Russia's sacred Victory Day holiday commemorating the defeat of Nazi Germany and was covered widely by television networks in Russia and across the globe.

Posting on Twitter using the name Abu Turaab al-Kanadi, the militant shared images of everything from a Toyota pick-up truck to M16 machine guns and night vision goggles - much of which is marked as being for restricted use by the U.S. government.

Cameron and Clegg agree UK will respond favourably to any requests for direct military assistance in fight against Isis

Britain is prepared to supply weapons directly to Kurdish forces fighting jihadists from the Islamic State (Isis) in northern Iraq, David Cameron and Nick Clegg have agreed at an emergency Cobra meeting.

In a significant intensification of British involvement in the Iraq crisis, the foreign secretary, Philip Hammond, will tell his EU counterparts in Brussels on Friday that Britain is prepared to join France in arming the Kurds.

In this photo supplied by Joburg Parks and Zoo and taken Feb. 14, 2014, Wang, the zoo's only polar bear stands in his enclosure at the Johannesburg Zoo on St. Valentine's Day. The bear was put down Wednesday, Aug. 13, 2014 because it was suffering from liver and heart illnesses. (AP Photo-Joburg Parks and Zoo) NO ARCHIVING, NO LICENSING

MOSCOW — A Russian aid convoy struck a new course toward rebel-held territory in eastern Ukraine on Thursday, apparently flouting Ukrainian demands that all humanitarian shipments be subject to government inspections and prompting Kiev to threaten a direct confrontation if it tries to pass through.

The military leader of pro-Russian rebels in the eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk, Igor Girkin - known as Strelkov - has resigned.

Alexander Borodai, the former PM of the self-declared Donetsk People's Republic, confirmed the news but denied reports Mr Strelkov had been wounded.

There has been heavy shelling both in Donetsk and Luhansk as Ukrainian forces battle the separatists.

The news came with a disputed Russian aid convoy stationed near the border.

'Tsar' takes over

Mr Borodai confirmed Strelkov's departure to Russian media but gave no reason.

Ukrainian troops are reported to have fully cut off Luhansk

He said reports that Strelkov, a Russian citizen, had been injured were "total rubbish".

"You probably already know that he, like myself, has left his post," Mr Borodai said in a video posted by Russia's pro-Kremlin Life News website.

"The [Donetsk People's Republic] already has a new defence minister."

Mr Borodai said the new minister went by the nom de guerre Tsar.

His name was given by other sources as Vladimir Kononov.

A member of the Donetsk People's Republic's security council, Serhiy Kavtaradze, told the Interfax agency that Mr Kononov was a "well-known militiaman".

Convoy halts

The Russian aid convoy of at least 260 lorries, which moved towards the border on Thursday, has now halted.

There is continuing confusion over the final destination. On Thursday afternoon, the lorries were parked in a field, reports the BBC's Steve Rosenberg, who is following the convoy.

At the scene: BBC's Steve Rosenberg, with the Russian convoy

The BBC's Steven Rosenberg travelled alongside the convoy

We followed the convoy for about nine hours, having left Voronezh before dawn. The convoy turned off the main highway - the M04 - on to a smaller road to the border. All the lorries are now parked here in a field.

We asked one commander to show us the contents of the lorries. He selected one, and it contained sleeping bags. But it was just one of at least 260 lorries. I cannot say accurately what the contents of the others are. The lorries will wait here until the convoy is given orders - but there is no indication when that will be.

I spoke to one driver. He was very anti-American and asked why the United States was trying to take Ukraine away from Russia.

The key question now is what Russia does next. If it takes the convoy across the border, it will be seen by the Ukrainian authorities as a major provocation.

A convoy of 26 trucks with humanitarian aid left the government-controlled Ukrainian city of Kharkiv on August 14 for the separatist-held Luhansk region. Serhiy Bochkovskiy, the chief of Ukraine's State Service for Emergency Situations, told journalists the supplies would be handed over to the Red Cross for distribution in the region. The Ukrainian trucks left Kharkiv as a Russian aid convoy of nearly 300 trucks was approaching Ukraine's border. Moscow said its convoy was not...

Putin's Ukraine gamble hastens exodus of Russian money and talentReutersVladimir Putin's annexation of Crimea and support for rebels accused of shooting down a passenger plane over Ukraine then hindering the recovery of the 298 bodies have shredded Western hopes of a lasting alliance with Moscow. Sanctioned by the United ...

»Face-to-face with sharks15/08/14 10:00 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinksmikenova shared this story from CNN.com - World. Photographer Michael Muller is a man without fear. He swims among sharks without the protection of a cage to make studio-quality, intimate photos of these beautiful creatures. As scary as ...

»Crimea Proves Difficult to Digest15/08/14 09:32 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinksmikenova shared this story from Home. Russia’s annexation of the Crimean peninsula in February sparked a conflict between the Ukrainian government and pro-Russian separatists that has drawn in the international community. However, while ...

»Kiev's Volunteers: Anger, Bravado14/08/14 09:55 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinksmikenova shared this story from WSJ.com: World News. Fighting alongside regular troops and heavy artillery, the battalions are a cross-section of Ukrainian society. But they also include extreme nationalists and people who aren't prone t...

»Russia Convoy Nears Border14/08/14 09:53 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinksmikenova shared this story from WSJ.com: World News. A convoy of nearly 300 trucks that Russia says are carrying humanitarian aid for cities in eastern Ukraine headed south along the border toward the rebel-held city of Luhansk.

»Crisis in Ukraine - BBC News14/08/14 08:42 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinksmikenova shared this story from Top Stories - Google News. RT Crisis in Ukraine BBC News Photographs are coming in from the centre of Donetsk, which came under heavy artillery fire this morning. Here men help a wounded woman in a street....

»What is a 'proper' selfie?13/08/14 18:44 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinksmikenova shared this story from Uploads by CNNInternational. What is a 'proper' selfie? There are selfie rules you should know before you snap away and post. Rachel Crane breaks down the do's and dont's. From: CNNInternational Views: 0 0...

»Russian convoy changes course13/08/14 12:58 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinksmikenova shared this story from CNN.com - World. A convoy of 280 of Russian trucks headed for Ukraine -- which Moscow says is carrying relief goods for war-weary civilians -- has suddenly changed its course, according to a Ukrainian stat...

»Putin's secret friend in Germany13/08/14 09:38 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinksmikenova shared this story from Russia | The Guardian. After revelations of Russian presidents links to former chancellor Gerhard Schröder, investigation sheds light on relationship with influential German businessman When Vladimir Putin...

»Joy Pedro Julio Serrano turns off12/08/14 12:11 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinksmikenova shared this story from Metro - Últimas noticias. The rights activist LGBTT community, Pedro Julio Serrano, through social networks to let his followers know that is plunged into a depression due to unemployment. In a message pos...

»Proposed measure for new plebiscite12/08/14 11:31 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinksmikenova shared this story . The popular representative Carlos J. Vargas today introduced a bill to make possible a query whose status options would be statehood yes or no. "This legislative measure seeks to clarify the Congress of the U...

»Analyst: Political moves in Iraq12/08/14 08:19 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinksmikenova shared this story from Uploads by CNNInternational. Analyst: Political moves in Iraq The nomination of a new Iraqi prime minister could giveIraqis "a nationalistic surge," says CNN military analyst. From: CNNInternational Views:...

»ISIS 'an unproven threat' to the U.S.12/08/14 08:17 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinksmikenova shared this story from Uploads by CNNInternational. ISIS 'an unproven threat' to the U.S. ISIS has "no demonstrated ability to carry out attacks" in the U.S., says fmr. State Dept. counterterrorism coordinator. From: CNNInternat...

»Robin Williams, 1951-201412/08/14 08:15 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinksmikenova shared this story from Voice of America. Veteran U.S. actor-comedian Robin Williams was found dead Monday, Aug. 11, at his home in northern California, the victim of an apparent suicide. He was 63.

»The two big lies about pot in Uruguay12/08/14 08:03 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinksmikenova shared this story . A consumer at the Cannabis Studies Association checks a bud for crystal-looking bits said to contain the THC chemical that gets you high. See more from this gallery. (Kamilia Lahrichi/GlobalPost) MONTEVIDEO, ...

»Russian convoy heads for Ukraine12/08/14 07:58 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinksmikenova shared this story from Network Front | The Guardian. Moscow says 280 trucks are carrying aid but western powers warn against using humanitarian effort as pretext for invasion A convoy of 280 trucks that Russia says is carrying h...

»10:12 pm11/08/14 21:57 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinksmikenova shared this story from World News | Breaking US News and International News Headlines - GlobalPost. 10:12 pm Alex Leff Here's the supermoon, in case you missed it (PHOTOS) This could be the biggest moon of the year. This is how ...